Quinoa and Amaranth Crockpot Breakfast

This was ridiculously simple. It made more than enough to feed 5 people with leftovers (because two of the 8 people here are teenaged boys who rummaged for leftover pizza).

2 cups of amaranth
2 cups of quinoa
8 cups of water
brown sugar to taste
about 1/3 cup coconut oil or other fat

Melt coconut oil or other fat in your crockpot and turn the crockpot in order to coat crock with fat
While coconut oil is melting, rinse the quinoa well and add to crockpot*
Pour amaranth into crockpot
Add water and brown sugar (approximately 1/2 cup) and stir all well. You can skip sweetener or choose a more natural alternative (honey, maple syrup, apple sauce)
Turn crockpot on low and cook about 6-8 hours

If you don’t like quiona, you won’t like it, because it still tastes like quinoa. It also has such a nutty flavor, that my kids didn’t believe me when I told them there was no peanut butter in it.

I stirred a bit of jam into mine. It was really pretty good as is, but other additions could include:
raisins
cinnamon
nutmeg
craisins
chia seeds
cream
diced apples
maple syrup

*quinoa should be rinsed before cooking to remove the natural bitter coating on the seeds. Because quinoa seeds are so small, you need a small seive. I used a Bacon Splatter Screen
over a bowl of water (and spilled out more quinoa than I wish I had). Another solution would have been a jar with a square of nylon stocking (knee hi-s) stretched tightly over the top and held on with a rubber band.

This is gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy free, grain-free etc, etc.

Quinoa and amaranth are technically seeds and not grains, which is why they are gluten free. Both have high levels of lysine, an important amino acid (and one that is good for reducing cold sores).

Carbohydrates

A serving of amaranth carries 46g of carbohydrates. These consist of 40g of starch, 5.2g of dietary fiber and 0.8 g of complex carbohydrates. The same amount of quinoa delivers 39.4g of carbs: 32.6g of starch, 5.2g of fiber and 1.6g of complex carbohydrates. According to Walter Willett in “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy,” the higher a grain’s content of complex carbohydrates as compared to starches, the healthier that grain is.

Vitamins

Quinoa delivers significantly more vitamins than amaranth. A serving of quinoa gives you 19 percent of your daily dose of folate, more than 10 percent of your B1, B2 and B6, and smaller but appreciable amounts of vitamin E and B3. Amaranth does bring 14 percent of your B6 and folate to the table, but contains less than 5 percent of your daily allowance for other vitamins.

Minerals

The situation is reversed between amaranth and quinoa when it comes to minerals. Amaranth brings over 100 percent of your daily manganese and over 25 percent of your iron, magnesium and phosphorus. It delivers more than 10 percent of everything else, except for sodium. Of this more harmful mineral, it carries only 1 percent of your allowance. Quinoa carries 58 percent of your manganese and between 10 and 20 percent of your daily need for iron, zinc and copper. It also contains just 1 percent of your sodium.